


the next great adventure

by alittlelesspain



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 02:06:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16440968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlelesspain/pseuds/alittlelesspain
Summary: Alex gets fatally injured in a routine mission, and wakes up in the Death Arenas, where she can be allowed to get her life back, if she wins a series of battles in the Death Games tournament. Unexpectedly, she finds Astra over the course of the games, who has been unmotivated to to pass on to death or go back to life, but who agrees to help Alex win the tournament and return to her sister.Written for the General Danvers Week 2018 prompt: Afterlife





	the next great adventure

**Author's Note:**

> This is a ficlet I wrote to accompany a [**fanart**](http://sangamanga.tumblr.com/post/179525177792/for-the-afterlife-prompt-of-gd-week-2018-alex) that I drew for the General Danvers week 2018 prompt: Afterlife.

Of all the things in Alex’s life that happen on the far side of the impossible line, the existence of an afterlife really takes the cake.

One moment she’s shooting at a rogue alien prisoner, trying to contain him before he escapes out into National City’s general populace. The next, there’s a deadly sharp claw slicing through the air towards her, tearing like butter through both her uniform and the soft flesh of her stomach. Alex feels mind-numbing pain for a moment, followed by an odd feeling like tripping and falling, except that there isn’t anything around to trip on.

The next thing she knows, she’s in the middle of a grand arena, being cheered on from all sides by stands full of phantom souls.

The Death Arenas, the man running them calls it, if such an eldritch being can be classified under human taxonomy. He calls himself something too, a name with more syllables and apostrophes than Alex cares to remember. She just calls him the Judge, because he sits at the topmost dias of the stands overlooking the arena, watching every fight below with impassive vigilance.

And what fights they are. Battle after battle, melee after melee, held relentlessly to packed phantom stadiums under a sweltering sun. It’s a yearlong tournament, Alex learns. At the end of each year, one lucky soul emerges victorious, and gets the choice to either pass back to Life, or move forward into Death.

Not once, during any of the fights, has Alex seen the Judge give away any emotion, no matter how heartrending the drama in the arena below.

Not that she cares. The only thing that Alex, the newest entrant to the Death Games, cares about is winning the damn tournament, and getting back home, back to Kara and J’onn and the DEO, back to a world that makes _sense._

* * *

 

Unlike most of the other rare souls that straggle into the Death Arenas, Alex has a lot of combat experience under her belt. Switching from projectile weapons to hand-to-hand fighting, as per tournament rules, only slows her down a little, because J’onn had insisted on DEO agents doing year-round rotational training with every weapon known to man. Then and there, this had meant that Alex had to spend an annoying amount of her weekends at one training facility or another.

Now and here, it means that she’s nigh-unbeatable in one-to-one combat. She easily takes down every opponent assigned to her in the early rounds of the tournament, intent on only one thing: to go back.

However, that changes when Alex makes it to the melee rounds of the tournament. There, amidst a throng of other fighters, her training doesn’t help as much, when beings built like tanks can just steamroll her, while she’s engaged with fighting off other opponents.

It is in one such melee, as she’s fighting off two attackers at once, that a mace hurtles through the crowd of fighters towards Alex. Stuck in place, she prepares for the blow to hit, fully expecting to be crushed by the mace. She’ll heal, she knows. Death by injury isn’t final, in this transient space. It’ll still hurt like a bitch, though, and it’ll still mean that she’ll go down in the rankings.

Then, someone is jumping in front of her, parrying the incoming weapon away with a grunt of exertion. Her rescuer stumbles from the impact of making contact with the mace, and falls to the ground, and Alex gapes as the helmet rolls off.

When it comes to being surprised by things, she’s really batting a thousand, here in this strange farce of an afterlife.

Because, lying on the ground, grunting in pain after having blocked a blow meant for her, is one General Astra.

* * *

 

There’s no time for questions, out in the arena. Alex has only a moment to stare, before Astra is picking herself up with a wince, and whirling back away into the fray. Alex finds her own attention soon taken with having to parry away an attack from another opponent, before she can even process what has happened.

Afterwards, though, when they both make it through, not unscathed but at least with all limbs intact, Alex fights through the crowd towards her.

“Hey! Hey, wait up!”

Astra doesn’t slow down her pace, as she leaves the arena, and Alex finds herself blocked by so many bodies in the way, that it’s a miracle that she even manages to keep the woman in her sight.

“Astra!”

She finally manages to catch up to her in the changing rooms. Alex skids in at almost a dead run, just in time to see Astra wet a towel, and start wiping away at her wounds with it. Alex doesn’t know why she’s bothering to do that. All the wounds and blood fade away here, after a few hours, after the pain has lingered enough to teach them a lesson.

“Agent Danvers.” Astra’s voice is guarded.

Alex stares at her, because what do you say to a ghost from your past? Almost a literal ghost, of someone that she had killed with her own hands. Alex remembers how easily the kryptonite sword had cleaved through soft flesh, and gulps.

“You saved me,” she says.

“You’re making a production out of one parry,” Astra says, “It was a split second decision. Don’t look too deeply into it.”

“I just wanted to say thanks,” Alex says, stung.

Maybe she should be angrier. It’s hard to feel anything other than shock, though. Whatever anger she’d harboured for the woman before, four years of disuse has faded it into a dull thing.

Astra barely seems to hear her, frowning down at the now bloody towel instead.

“How did you end up here, Agent Danvers?”

Alex grimaces.

“Director, now,” she says. “And, it was a routine mission.”

J’onn had told her to wait for backup, but Alex had thought she’d be fine. She’d always been fine before, with Kara to back her up. But, in a split second, Alex had missed a crucial shot, and Kara had been too distracted with her own fight to help, and-

Alex shakes her head, feeling a phantom tinge of pain in her stomach, where the claw had plunged through.

“It’s not your time,” Astra says quietly. She’s still frowning at the towel. “You’ve lived too short a lifespan, even for a human. And, I don’t imagine that Kara is happy, right now, about this... new development.”

Alex stares at her.

“Understatement of the century,” she says, when she finds her voice. Whatever else is going on in Alex’s life, Kara’s worrywart behaviour is a constant. Alex can only imagine how spare her sister is going, right now.

“You want to go back, don’t you?” Astra asks, now sitting down and starting to clean her sword, another thing that Alex doesn’t know why she’s bothering with. “You’re too unused to this type of fighting, Agent... _Director_ Danvers. You’ll get murdered out there, in a matter of speaking, without someone to guard your back.”

Alex stares at the woman, then at the weapon she’s cleaning, back to Astra, and then the penny finally drops.

“But,” she starts, “That’s not... they said-”

“Technically, teaming up is forbidden by tournament rules,” Astra says, speaking over her. “So, of course we won’t be doing that. We won’t have an agreement that I’ll watch your back, as you’ll watch mine. We certainly are not planning to strategize together, in the hopes that two minds are better than one. Because that would be against the rules, and we are not planning to break the rules."

Alex is still staring.

“But, only one of us can win the tournament,” she says.

“I’m not here to win,” Astra says, “I fight enough to stay in the rankings, but I have no wish to pass on, or go back.”

“What do you want in return, then?” Alex asks, not caring that she’s looking a gift horse in the mouth, considering that the gift horse is actually a rogue Kryptonian general with a rap sheet longer than Alex’s arms and legs stretched out in a line.

“I don’t think you can give me anything I want,” Astra says, lips twitching.

Alex draws a deep breath, pretty sure that she’s being baited, but not quite sure how.

“Why are you still here, Astra?”

It’s been _years_ , since Astra’s death on the rooftop. Does time not pass the same way, here? Or, has Astra simply been unable to move on? Alex still remembers, clear as day even all these years later, the emotional turmoil in the woman’s eyes during their last confrontation. Is Astra one of those people that the Judge had mentioned at initiation, the ones who have no drive to go back, or move on, and are therefore stuck in limbo forever?

Astra glances at her, then back to the sword on her lap.

“Maybe you _can_ do something for me,” she says, instead of answering Alex’s question.  


Alex raises her eyebrows. “Which would be?”

“In return for the help that I am most definitely not offering you, you can give Kara a message from me,” Astra says, “Tell my niece-” and here Astra closes her eyes, and purses her lips momentarily, “-tell her I’m sorry. For everything.”

“That’s it?” Alex asks.

She wants to say something different, something like “Do you think that’s enough?”, but the words die on her lips.

Astra looks at Alex. She’s not smiling, exactly, but she wears a more neutral expression than her previous frown. “Sending you - her sister - back, would be the least I could do to assure her of the truth of my sentiments, would it not?”

* * *

 

The thing is, they make a strangely good team.

Alex is a quick learner, and fast on her feet, and Astra has a strategic mind that’s practically byzantine in the ideas it comes up with. They spend hours together, training and strategizing. Astra finds weaknesses in Alex’s combat maneuvers, relentlessly exploiting them in practice, so that Alex is aware of them before her opponents expose them on the battlefield. Alex, in turn, criticizes every hole in the strategies Astra comes up with, until they’ve drafted out near-foolproof campaigns to play out against opposing cliques. Between the two of them, they rise from ranking to ranking, overthrowing every other opponent and team in their way.

They have the support of the crowds in the stands, too. Alex learns early on that humans are considered to be one of the underdogs of tournaments like these, and that even Kryptonians aren’t valued much higher, so far away from yellow suns. And the spectators _love_ underdogs. The phantom crowd roars louder and louder with every victory the two of them win.

Alex, though, has eyes only for the quiet being who sits on the dias, silently observing each battle. Has the Judge seen through their ploy? That’s the sickening fear that runs through her mind, every time she enters the arena for a new fight.

Still, the overseer says nothing, as Alex and her unlikely comrade fight their way from victory to victory, and at last, there comes a day when their names rise right to the top of the rankings.

At the end of that battle, the Judge stirs, and sits up, to study the rankings. Alex meets Astra’s eyes, then. She knows, without words needing to be exchanged, that tomorrow will be the day that their fates are decided.

* * *

  
  
The next day, they face their hardest series of battles yet, because only the strongest remain at this level of the tournament. It takes every bit of Alex’s quick thinking, now, and every bit of Astra’s tactical planning, to get them past opponent after opponent. And, although she’s been trained for years not to show it, Alex is terrified every step of the way, that the other shoe will drop. Sooner or later one of them is going to slip, or make a bad mistake, and there goes their winning streak, all for naught. She knows, the dread settling deep in her bones, that something will go wrong.

And it does.

They’re down to the last three still remaining in the tournament, just Alex and Astra and one more competitor, a bulky Andromedan. Alex has just turned away from putting another opponent down and she’s still off balance, when the Andromedan charges at her, his battle axe whirring.

 _This is it._ Alex swallows and braces herself for impact, trying to stem the tide of disappointment. She’s fought so hard, she’s made it so far. All for nothing. _Fuck._

And then she has a sickening feeling of déjà vu, as Astra throws herself in the path of the wickedly curved axe.

The crunch of the impact is muted by the crowd roaring from the stands. When the dust clears, Astra has taken the Andromedan down with her, leaving Alex as the last one standing in the tournament.

* * *

 

There’s blood, when Alex runs over to survey Astra’s state. A lot of it, in fact, and even though she knows it’s not _really_ real, it still makes Alex’s stomach turn.

Astra, though, simply smiles wryly, as Alex kneels over her. Alex can see the gash slicing through her chest in a bloody arc, can see the winces of pain, but amusement shines past all that.

“So, it ends just as it started, does it?”

“Don’t say things like that,” Alex says, her throat tight. “Now’s not the time for wisecracking, ok?”

“Don’t look so stunned,” Astra says. “This was the agreement, was it not? And you won, so you can see I’ve kept up my end of our bargain. Now, keep yours, and leave.”

“But, you’re hurt,” Alex says.

She can see tears of pain pooling around Astra’s eyes despite her words, can see her lips trembling from the effort of holding back noises of pain.

“Go, Alex, before that man up there changes his mind. He doesn’t look it, but he can be a temperamental beast, when he thinks he’s been tricked.”

Alex looks from the doorway that had opened up in midair after she’d won, and then back to Astra.

“I can’t just leave you here.”

That earns her an exasperated sigh, as Astra laboriously pushes herself up to her elbows, then to her palms, then to her knees, before finally standing upright.

“I think I’ve already told you how much I admire your sense of honor-” and here she tackles Alex bodily, while grimacing in pain, and then grabs her around the waist when Alex is thrown off-balance “-But there’s such a thing as too much of it, Director Danvers.”

“Wait, wait wait!” Alex scrambles, clutching at Astra, who looks quite ready to _throw_ her through the doorway, “How am I supposed to tell Kara that I just left you here?”

Astra’s lips are stretched tight, maybe in pain. “Kara understands that everything has a price, and that there are things that one can’t come back from.”

Alex’s heart falls.

“No, she won’t,” she says, “You know her better than that.”

“Just go,” Astra says, moving her towards the gate again. “It’ll be too late for the both of us, if you don’t.”

“I’m come back for you,” Alex blurts out, “I’ll tell Kara and we can... we’ll figure it out, I promise!”

Astra stares at her, before a small smile twitches her lips up.

“You really believe that, don’t you? I don’t know if that’s something you learned from my niece, or that she learnt from you.”

“I do mean it,” Alex says, clutching at the woman’s arms, afraid she’ll disappear if Alex doesn’t hold on. “I don’t know if you’re scared to move on because of what, uh, what _Rao_ has in store for you, but there are things to come back for, Astra. Kara loves you, and Alura is _alive._ Your sister is alive.”

Astra’s eyes are wide, all of a sudden, and she inhales in one deep motion, as if truly breathing for the first time.

“Alura,” she stammers, “But she was... she died... _how_?”

Alex strokes her face, her warm and alive face, the remnants of the once vibrant woman that Astra must have been. She wants so much more time to know that woman, and now she has none at all left.

“It’ll take too long to explain, Astra. Argo City survived, and Alura is alive, and I’m sure she’ll want to see you. It’s something to live for, do you hear me?”

Astra is shaking her head, still looking disbelieving, and Alex can see why it sounds false, when she’s held the knowledge back all this time that they’ve fought together. She hadn’t been sure, before, of whether to trust Astra with that information, or even how the woman would react. Now, she just feels regret that she hadn’t told her sooner, that she hadn’t given it more time to sink in.

“You need to go now, Alex.”

“I mean it,” Alex repeats, “Listen to me, you stubborn general! We’re getting you back.”

And this time, when she says it, she knows it’s not just for Kara that she’ll do that. It’ll be for Astra too, and for Alex herself. It’ll be for all the times they’ve spent strategizing over their battles, when she’s gotten to know this opaque woman better, has been granted her rare genuine smiles, and seen the vulnerability that Astra has allowed to shine through here, in this place where she has nothing more to lose. Alex doesn’t want to let go of that, not any of it. Doesn’t want to let go of Astra, not when she’s just gotten to know her.

“I’m coming back for you, ok?”

Alex doesn’t have time to think about the fact that she’d said “I” this time, instead of “we”, because Astra is giving her a final push forward through the doorway, and everything is fading, and Alex once again gets the weirdest sensation of tripping and falling over something nonexistent.

“Good luck, Director Danvers,” is the last thing she hears, before the world of the afterlife fades away.

**Author's Note:**

> Y’all, I know this seems like a sad ending, but this is Alex freaking Danvers we’re talking about, here. As my man J’onn J’onzz said in Season 1 of Supergirl (2015 creat. Ali Adler) - and which subsequent seasons seem to have forgotten - Alex is a Supergirl herself, and has the same transformative power to change hearts and fates, and she’ll get Astra back because even Life or Death can’t stand in her way.
> 
> Anyways, thank you for reading this fic! I hope u guys liked it! October has been really hectic for me because of work and travel business, so I have no more fics upcoming for this week :((( But!!! I did draw a piece of fanart for each of the seven prompts, and I’ll be posting them on my artblog [**here**](http://sangamanga.tumblr.com) over the next four days, so i hope you give them a look!
> 
> Here's to a great GD Week! :D


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